Stranger than fiction

[SteamGene]

Just search for New York Central and then go to the Wikipedia article.  You will help out your favorite charity, school, or church if you do it through Good Search.
Gene

[fieromike]

Ok I remember now.  It was dress up to look like a T&P locomotive.  Then it was traded and replaced by a GG1.   A GG1 in Texas!

There is a GG1 at the Age of Steam Museum at Fair Park in Dallas.  That puppy looks pretty large in pictures, but in person, its HUGE!
Age of Steam:http://www.dallasrailwaymuseum.com/

Mike

[Yampa Bob]

A neighbor  started a museum.   So far he has an old caboose and a couple box cars, is looking for an old locomotive.  He also has a couple of Army helicopters, I expect to see a B-29 show up someday. 

Be kinda hard to hide a loco in sagebrush. I bet somewhere in an old barn is a nice Connie, not as strange as it sounds.

Bob

[Redtail67]

I recall several times that the BN had "LOST" some locomtives for over 2 months. They were interchanged to a foreign line in dedicated intermodal service and had not been seen since. Bullietins were issued to train and engine crews to be on the lookout for these units and if seen contact the dispatching office in Ft. Worth.

Believe it or not it was not an uncomman occurrence as the other roads would steal this units to provide power for trains when the were short on servicable units. The the railroads started a means to payback the home roads by horspower hours they held the units captive.

Heres a tidbit for you, in the mid 1960s I was a railfan as well as a Railroad Engineer and as such read a lot of railroad history. I had come across a story on the Red River and Gulf Railroad out of Long Leaf, Louisiana and decided to take a trip over there and see if I could find any of its remains.

I drove over to a siding off the MP where this road linked up to them. I stated walking through the woods and came up on their old Main Line I believe it was 65 lb rail. Trees were growing between the ties two feet thick.

I walked for I think about a mile an out of those pines shines a roundhouse abvouy 6  stalls if I remember correctly. I could not believe my eyes there were two beautiful steam engines one with wooden cab and diamond stack and a dinky deisel maybe 20 tons. The Steam Engines were painted and all brass was polished brite.

When I got up on the wooden cab Steamer and old Negro man with a shotgun in hand stopped me. He asked just "What the H#$$" did I think I was doing. I got down as instructed and we started talking. He told me that his daddy and now him were paid by the owners of the old railroad to guard the railroad property.

I begged him for a bell or whistle like the idiot I was and of course he refused but he did give me the monthly inspection form off the "Dinky" which I gladly accepted as well as one other item that I can not recall.

I believe the monthly inspection was dated in 1956 that would have been her last as the Road went into banckruptcy about that time.

I went backh several times and visited with that guy and as far as I know those Engines track and all are still there just out in woods.

On one of my last visits I came out of the woods and there were two Louisiana Midland Saddle Tank Steam Engines loaded on flats that had been set out at that siding account problems with the flat cars. I learned later that they were on there way to a Museum or Steam Tourist Road in Arkansas.

I used to go all over East Texas and louisiana looking fore that kind of stuff as there were many logging roads that been in the area. I found quite a few old shays some in pretty good shape a few 2-6-0 most have gone to scrap now and some were taken by Museums.

Just thought I would throw in my 2 cents worth.

Redtail67

[Redtail67]

Heres another!

I had an old railroad history book that made reference to an logging engine that fell down the mountain in 1907 and no attempt was made at recovery because it was totaly destroyed. The mountain was two miles out of Clatskannie, Orgeon. (mispelled I am sure) My brother just happened to live there.

In 1968 I went out on vacation got in his truck found the mountain and went looking for the engine. I found what remained right where the book said it was. This book was written about 1930 and the wreck happened in 1907.Took two hours to get to bottom of a very rugged incline and there were the remains with the number plate still attached to shattered and rusted out remains.

I went back to my brothers house and got some tools and went back and removed the brass plate as I started up the mountain some 16 hours had elaped and it was way after dark. My brother had called out the search and rescue thinking I was lost.

The weather turned cold and rainy and I was miserable and exhausted I had to abandon the plate about halfway up. I could not get it loose from some of the boiler skin and just broke it off and it was heavy.

So to this day the remains of the wreck are probably still there everything rotten and decayed excepte the big steel such as wheels rods etc. The brass plate unless some hunter has found it I bet is laying where I dropped it.

redtail67

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

I walked for I think about a mile an out of those pines shines a roundhouse abvouy 6  stalls if I remember correctly. I could not believe my eyes there were two beautiful steam engines one with wooden cab and diamond stack and a dinky deisel maybe 20 tons. The Steam Engines were painted and all brass was polished brite.

Wow! Do you remember what her wheel arrangement was?

[Ken]

  Goggle      'Red River & Gulf Railroad"  currently being
restored as a  forestery museum.

  Ken
GWN

[ebtnut]

Another story involving a logging loco.  Deep in West Virginia, just off the B&O main from Cumberland to Grafton, was a short line that hauled coal from a tipple down in the holler up to the B&O.  They used an old Shay that had bounced around WVA for quite a while.  The mine shut down, and the Shay was parked in the enginehouse and sat there for like 10 years.  Finally, some fans managed to contact the then-owner of the property and purchased the loco.  It took them a while, but they finally got the loco pulled out of the house and up to the B&O R-O-W.  They were intending to bring in a truck along the tracks and haul the loco away.  Before they could do that, though, the B&O derailed a train on the curve there and piled it up on top of the Shay, totally destroying it.  This happened maybe 20 years ago, now.

[Redtail67]

The engine that fell from the mountain was a shay and that is all i remember. It belonged to one of the many logging companies that were clear cutting the mountains of Oregon.

[Redtail67]

The Red River and Gulf as a Forestry Museum Great hope they still haver those Engines they were real beauties in what looked to be excellent shape.

That railroad like most was started with grand plans to go to New Orleans but they did not make it. The did have quite an operation at one time operating several passenger trains and local freights.

I will google it up and the next time I go home I might just go to that museum.

Thanks for the info Ken
Redtail67

[Redtail67]

Did my google and low and behold found one of the sream engines at Stone Mountain Park  the Red River and Gulf No. 104 a Baldwin 4-4-0 built 1919 with 60 inch drivers  weighs 89,000 lbs.

She was minus the Brass Number Plate that was on it the last time I saw it and weathered badly.

She was bright colored and all brass was polished by that watchman. It says it is "stored" at the Stone Mountain Park.

I wonder what happened to the others.

redtail67

[Guilford Guy]

Back in the early 20th century, there was a large logging operation in northern Maine. The railroad owned 2 steam locomotives, one from the Rutland, and one from the New York Central. In 1930 the railroad quit, it was deemed too expensive to remove everything. In 1969 a park ranger "accidentally" burned the remains of the engine house and water tower. To this day the 2 steamers are still up in the woods, having not moved since 1930.
There are also remains of the tramway which transported the logs a distance of 5 miles, between 2 lakes, before the railroad was built.




http://mainegov-images.informe.org/doc/parks/programs/history/allagash/tramremains.jpg
http://mainegov-images.informe.org/doc/parks/programs/history/allagash/tramnow.jpg

[TonyD]

GG you did it again! those should be trump cards in the guessing game.... I'm gonna start calling you "Pam Am surface tranportation" And I forgot, who owned them before the logger? ...!!! never mind! put that in the guessing game!

[Guilford Guy]

GG you did it again! those should be trump cards in the guessing game.... I'm gonna start calling you "Pam Am surface tranportation" And I forgot, who owned them before the logger? ...!!! never mind! put that in the guessing game!

Um, riiiiiiiiiight...